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You are here: Live Your Life E-zine > Hostel Newsletters - 2009 > July E-Zine > Spotlight USA - Memphis

Spotlight USA - Memphis

A Little Elvis – Sun Studios

I think it’s more than appropriate to kick off with the most famous of Memphis exports – Mr Elvis Presley himself. Love him, loathe him or feel indifferent towards him, this small town boy made it out of a poverty riddled background and into the world wide big time. He also, rather touchingly, took everyone he loved along with him for the ride and even, went as far to take daughter Maria on a two hour, private jet jaunt, upon realising she’d never seen snow. Now there are two places in town where you can acquaint yourself with what made the king tick and the first is the studio where it all started, back on July 18, 1953.

On this very special date a very young and a very nervous Elvis arrived at Sun Studio for a recording session. He excused his dalliance into music as a present making session for his dear old Mum and went on to record My Happiness, along with That's When Your Heartaches Begin. Now this was nothing special but about a year later one of his demos caught the attention of studio owner, Sam Phillips. In true rags to riches style, Mr Phillips couldn’t identify the voice on the track and his call back only came about because of the maternal intervention, and record keeping of, Sun Studio assistant - Marion Keisker. The recording session that ensued didn’t go any better than the first, but when Elvis began to play around with the sound of Arthur Crudup's That's All Right Mama, things really started to heat up.

After a little local radio support this recording began to spread like wildfire and it was eventually cut as a single, before being released across the southern states. That’s all right now isn’t it? Today the studio stands as it was back then and the ticker tape cross on the floor marking where Elvis stood during the recording sessions, is still there too. According to studio legend, Elvis was so nervous during the recording sessions, he couldn’t bare to look at Sam Phillips in the production booth, and so stood with his back to it where X marks the spot!

Many modern day big names still record in the studio for posterity and the photos of Johnny Cash et al adoring the walls, really do take you back to the better days of innocence and opportunity. You’ll find Sun Studio and its super friendly tour guides, at 706 Union Avenue.

Graceland

The second and rather more obvious place for Elvis worship has to be Graceland – a mansion, airstrip, ranch, automobile museum, shooting range and then some. A somewhat surprising fact on the audio tour narrated by Priscilla and Lisa Maria Presley, is the relocation of Elvis’ body from a public cemetery to a private plot on the estate. The public interest in the cemetery plot was in fact so immense that the decision was made to allow the King to rest at home and he’s now buried next to his twin brother - who died at birth, and his parents.

Morbidity aside the house itself is a true tribute to the cutting edge, stained glass, plastic fantastic design drive of the sixties and seventies. The jungle room is a true childhood indulgence - complete with a waterfall wall and the upstairs is strictly off limits. Not even Demi-TV-God-Oprah-Winfrey was allowed a look in, but if the bedroom up there is in fact where it came to a very sad and very premature end, then you can understand why. Or perhaps the King is in fact still alive and residing above the daily influx of hero worshipping fans.

Martin Luther King – The National Civil Rights Museum

If you only do one thing in Memphis then by all means skip Elvis and take your fine selves to the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is part of the Lorraine Motel – the very same motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Inside you are taken on a passionate and poignant journey through the historic fight for equal rights - by tour guides who actually lived through the integration of the high schools, the fire bombings of the first mixed greyhound buses, the café sit ins and of course - the sanitation workers strike that culminated in Dr. King’s visit to the city. Before it became an international tribute to the civil rights movement, the motel struggled along as just that, a motel where the two rooms booked out by Dr. King, 306 and 307, were maintained as a shrine.

However with a lot of fundraising and a little help from the planners behind the Smithsonian, the museum as it’s know today was opened on July 4, 1991, and has been a roaring success ever since. The second property - where assassin James Earl Ray was said to have taken the shot from, was then bought in 1999 and now the former Canipe’s Amusement Store and Rooming House is the final calling point of all guided tours of the museum.

What makes this and the balcony where Martin Luther King fell all the more poignant, is the mystery that still shrouds the assignation. Why was Ray - a seemingly ill prepared drifter – intermittently drawn to Dr. King’s cross country campaign itinerary? Was it really a coincidence that Dr. King’s personal security team took their break at exactly the same moment that the local police and fire services went off duty? Was it really feasible for Ray to make the shot from the angle he supposedly did - leaning out of a window in a severely cramped air shaft?

The case has been re-opened and closed on several occasions but despite new forensics and the benefits of retrospect, what really happened seems to be confined to the past and those who were in on it. What won’t change however is the very apparent power of Dr. King’s martyrdom. By the time you reach the balcony you will most certainly holding back the tears and it’s a truly humbling experience to see relative strangers from all colours, and creeds offer each other reassurance in this old motel. You’ll find the museum at 405 Mulberry Street and it’s worth every cent of the $13 ticket.

The Blues

It would be literarily criminal and culturally remiss to pass through Memphis and not take time out to worship the birthplace of the blues. Arguable this particular music genre can be traced back to one particular man and his name happened to be W. C. Handy. Originally from Alabama, Handy was inspired by the song of black labourers and went on to give the world tracks like St. Louis Blues, Yellow Dog Blues, Joe Turner Blues and Beale Street Blues. I wonder if he used the word blues in all of his song titles.

The original home of Mr Handy has been handily relocated to the Beale Street Historic District, where you guys can check it out with a little help from Heritage Tours. The house is a standard shot gun design – in that with the front and back door open, you could theoretically fire a shot gun through it without even scratching the sides. There’s not a great deal inside but it is a great thing to be part of the place where one of this world’s most prolific music genres, began.

Since the days of W.C. Handy a lot has changed but once a year you can experience first hand, the best of the old and the new - at the International Blues Challenge. This incredible annual event invades the world famous bars and stages of Beale Street for four days of pure music appreciation. The atmosphere on this neon riddled avenue is charged with electrifying talent and true southern hospitality. There’s not a push or a shove in sight and with just one wristband you can easily wonder from bar to bar, sampling the different acts, interpretations and reactions from a ‘yee‐haw’ prone audience! The acts that make it through the Beale Street judging sessions then go on to fight it out in the finals at the Orpheum Theatre. This joint is also neon-tastic and the talent that’s siphoned off into this stage is incomparable.

Check back in August for part two of the Memphis master piece, set to include more musical magic from the big hitters of yesteryear at Stax Studio, all the top notch places to grab a bite, a little Egyptian heritage, BB King, Morgan Freeman and of course a little shopping action!

- Rob Savage